Milton is an ‘unusual’ storm that poses a massive surge threat for Florida’s west coast. Some models show a possible Category 5 storm.
Tropical Storm Milton is expected to rapidly intensify into a major hurricane that will hit Florida’s Gulf Coast late Tuesday, bringing potentially “life-threatening” storm surge, destructive winds, and flooding rainfall to a large portion of the state, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Milton’s forecast cone “covers almost the entire west coast of Florida,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis Sunday morning. “[It’s] not any type of storm that has been dealt with, certainly in recent years … This is an unusual track in terms of it coming in from the Pacific Ocean, hopping across Mexico, forming and then coming horizontally into the west coast of Florida.”
The forecast track for Milton is particularly concerning for the Tampa Bay area. The forecast path on Sunday morning showed the storm moving directly into and over the bay as a major hurricane, although later in the morning the track shifted south toward Sarasota.
At a news conference Sunday, DeSantis said that Milton is expected to make landfall at about 5 p.m. Wednesday in Pinellas County. Still, “models can shift,” he warned. “Don’t get wedded to where the landfall is being predicted right now. The cone, at this point, effectively, can bring it almost anywhere on the western Florida peninsula.”
TropicalStorm #Milton is located 350 km east of Barra el Tordo, #Tamaulipas, and 500 km west-northwest of Progreso, #Yucatán.
It will cause #heavyrain in #Veracruz and very heavy rain in #Campeche, #QuintanaRoo, #Tabasco, Tamaulipas, and Yucatán.
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